During lunchtime at Thurston Middle School, several people were allowed to take charge of stands promoting Earth Day outside of the cafeteria. Twelve-year-olds Madeline and Lizzie owned their own stand that sold pots of different kinds of flowers. To grab more attention, the two best friends wore showy sweaters with plastic flowers attached to them. Their stand was inbetween the stand for friendship bracelets and the stand for donations for preventing deforestation.
"Come on, people!" shouted Madeline. "Buy a flower, be a flower, all that yadda-yadda-yadda."
"Don't get frustrated, Maddie," calmed Lizzie. "So far, we made..." She grabbed the jar for cash and looked inside. "... one dollar."
Madeline glared at the smiling Lizzie. Almost instantly, they turned their attention to Andrea who stormed out of the cafeteria, being followed by a girl of Asian descent.
"Andrea, you can't get mad at me when you didn't tell me," said the girl.
Andrea stopped and turned, making the girl stop. "Fine, Kim. So why don't you dump Kevin so I can have him?"
"No way, Fannie May. He likes me and I don't want to punish him."
"Then I'll punish you, Sandra Oh."
Andrea pulled on Kim's black hair, making her shriek. She reacted by pulled on Andrea's curly hair, making her scream. The girls ran in a circle in the middle of the hallway, latching onto each other's hair like a bunch of lions. Suddenly, a skinny African-American girl ran from behind her bracelet stand and stuck her arms between the fighting girls. She shook them off each other, extending her arms out to give the girls space.
"Ladies, ladies," the girl started, "why are you fighting like this? You two are girls and what you are doing is unladylike. If you make violence, the world will just fill with more violence. It's like a chain, a cycle. Look, you may not be sisters by genetics but technically, we are all God's children. So frankly, you two are sisters in spirit. And sisters are made to love so settle your differences with love. Spread the message of love, not pain. Please settle your differences."
Andrea relaxed her shoulders and sighed while the black girl took a step back. "I'm sorry, Kim," Andrea sincerely apologized. "I love you."
Kim smirked. "I'm not and I don't. I'm still going to hurt you."
She grabbed Andrea's shoulder.
"Now wait a second--" said the black girl, trying to step in front of the girls to break them up again. Unfortunately, the girl stepped in too quick as Kim struck her fist in the girl's face, the punch being meant for Andrea.
Kim stepped back surprised as the black girl fell back into Andrea's arms.
"Kimberly!" called an approaching male teacher. "How dare you punch that poor girl in the face!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her away furiously. "You're coming with me."
Andrea tried to help the girl stand up. "Man, are you okay?" she asked.
The girl almost lost her balance but soon stood up steadily on her own. "Yes, I'm alright," she answered, holding her nose. She blinked away the pain and shook her head, showing herself unfazed.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"She just punched you."
"Yes, I know."
"But you seem fine."
"I know that, too."
"Girl, talk to me 'cause we are so cool right now." Andrea began to smile.
"Hey!" called a Caucasian girl from behind the bracelet stand. "Debra, we got bracelets to sell!"
"Aren't you going to ask her if she's okay?" Andrea rose her eyebrow.
"Oh, yeah. Debra, are you okay because I need you to sell these bracelets and no one's going to buy them from a zombie."
"I'm coming," Debra said. She walked over to the stand.
"Stop fooling around. We need to raise enough money so I can get that bike."
Debra's eyebrow raised. "Bike?"
The girl's eyes widened. "I mean... raise enough money for the trees. The trees are important... like bikes."
"Mona, are you still thinking of that bike you saw in the commercials last week?"
"Please, I almost forgot about that."
"Were you going to sneakily use the cash to buy that bike?"
"What's wrong with treating oneself nicely?"
"Nothing but we would've made enough money to pay for the bike, meaning none would get donated."
"You watch commercials?" asked Lizzie.
"Debra, when are you gonna stop being such a tree freak for once in your life and think about me, your best friend?" asked Mona.
"Hey, that's not very nice," Madeline commented.
"Shut up, pageant queen."
"Don't tell that strange girl to shut up," said Debra.
"Oh, what are you going to do about it?"
"Wait, strange?" inquired Madeline.
"I meant as in 'unfamiliar'," explained Debra.
"Of course that's what you meant, you idiot," Mona remarked.
"Wait, the name's Mona, right?" asked Andrea.
Mona nodded with a look of disdain.
"Of course. That kind of reminds me of the Mona Lisa. Or at least it reminds me of its definition in Clueless." While speaking, Andrea walked over to her friends' stand and dug her fingers into a pot of a daisy. "I remember Cher saying that a Mona Lisa is when, 'from far away, it looks alright. But up close, it's a big ol' mess." Andrea held tightly handfuls of soil and walked over to Mona to slam the moist dirt onto the top of her head. "And that's what I see so clearly. Your name suits you well."
Mona's mouth gaped and breathed heavily as the dirt tumbled off her brown hair and down into her eyes and onto her nose. "Debra, we are not friends anymore!" Mona, with her eyes closed, idly walked out from behind the stand and attempted to run off.
"I'm sorry about that, Debra," said Andrea, looking into Debra's saddened eyes.
"It's okay," she responded. "I would've done that if I wasn't so chill."
"Hey, chill is good. I wish I can be chill sometimes."
"And Andrea is definitely not chill," Lizzie added.
Andrea turned her head to look at Lizzie but quickly turned it back.
"Thanks for standing up for me," shrugged Debra. "But now, I lost my only friend."
"That's not true," said Andrea. "I'm your friend."
Madeline stood and approached Debra. "I'm your friend, too."
Lizzie approached Debra as well. "Count me as a third," she smiled.
Debra's mood lightened up. "Wow, diverse friends!"
"How does she know I'm diverse?" whispered Lizzie to Madeline.
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